Solving time 11:58

…the last 4 minutes of which were spent trying to think of a six-letter word to fit ?I?S?N in 22 down, because the printable version from the website didn’t give the correct enumerations for the two two-word entries (the other one was 20D, but at least that’s still a real word).

Across
1 CURT,A,IN
5 RHUBARB - it’s what actors say in the background to emulate a murmur of conversation, I think.
10 FROG - double definition
13 ICEBOUND - good cryptic def. Pack could mean cards, wolves, etc. Ice was the third thing I thought of.
14 BLOODS,HOT
19 CHAIRLIFT - not such a good cryptic def, too obvious.
26 R(EGRESS)ING - because of the enumeration problem with 22 I was tempted to cross this out and find an alternative.
27 PAGE - Buttons being the pageboy in Cinderella.

Down
2 (t)UN(e),RAVEL
3 TIGER - “Tiger, tiger! burning bright/In the forests of the night”
6 HAM,LET
7 BETROTHAL (Harbottle*) - for some reason a hard anagram to spot. I had to write out the characters in a ring and stare at them for a while.
8 R(EVEN)UE
9 SCHIZOPHRENIA (Chopin’s hazier)* - whereas this jumped out at me straight away, despite the apostrophe displaying as %u2019 on my PC!
18 A,MATE,UR
20 IN SIGHT (”inn site”) - enumerated as (7) in the online printout version (although the interactive one had it right).
22 SITS IN - again, enumerated as (6) in the printout. This one gave me a lot more trouble though, and made me suspect some of my other answers, until I remembered the problem with 20. If it had been correctly given as (4,2) I’d have got it straight away. Grrr!

Some original ideas in quite a tough puzzle - held up by the 22-letter entry along the top and the 13-letter one in the first column.

Solving time: 30 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1/2 A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE  (investment is a tie; cash in)*    A very long anagram, I saw the phrase when I had a few letters from crossing answers.

10 A D(V)ENTURE    A commercial speculation

11 MINCE    Subtle, this.    this = mince indicating an anagram of (nice and m = bit of meat).     Some argue ‘bit’ is too vague to indicate the first letter as it could be any bit of the word.     I thought that Nice might hint at a French reference.    This was my last answer.

14 TR (IFF) ID     All reversed.      From John Wyndham’s SF novel The Day of the Triffids which I read a long time ago so this was my first answer to go in.

16 DEE P SEA

18 PRESAG E   (grapes)*    Saw the wordplay straightaway, but took a while to see the answer.

20 PA’S TIES    A little uneasy about tie = accessory if I’ve got this right.

21 L (I BERT) INE

23 Tony B LAIR

26 LADY-IN-WAITING    Saw this possibility straightaway from the enumeration, but was unsure about it.     Think what’s intended in one works in a palace (attending a royal household) or in the Ritz, as, say, a waitress, but not so sure about that.

DOWN

4 C (Tory = Conservative) RUSH (career vb) ED (Balls, Labour politician).     Very tricky.

5 I C ELAND

6 TEMPTRESS     Don’t quite see this - tress would be a hairpiece perhaps but not sure about the temp.  Pretty confident about the answer though.

8 LAMBETH PALACE  (a tall beech Pam)*     This was excellent as Rowan could refer to many people or things.     Official London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican Church.

15 F (RAG R) ANCY      Nicely misleading as ‘elaborate’ could be an anagram indicator, but not here.

20 PLECTRA    P for E in Electra

22 BALS A    Bal = dance in French

23 B (L) EST

Solving time: 20 minutes

 One of the easier Saturday Guardan puzzles, certainly an easier time than with Pasquale’s last week!

 For those looking to spread their wings beyond a normal daily puzzle, these are often a good way to start the thinking processes that lead to the Elysian Fields of Azed, Inquisitors,  Listeners, etc.

 There is a very simple principle with these puzzles.  Many of the clues need to be solved blind, and therefore the setter will often make them easier to get you into the puzzle. 

 With this one, if you look at the letter lengths, you’ll see that the four thirteen letter answers belong to J, Q, X and Y.  The clues to at least two of these are fairly straightforward.  Al so, if you look at the grid, there are two pairs of answers , at 16 ac and down and 23 ac and down which start with the same letters.  Again solving these will give you good starting points, although with the two answers at 23, it transpires they both end with the same letter, so you could be in difficulty there.

ANSWERS  * = ANAGRAM  (CD) = CRYPTIC DEFINITION  (R) = REVERSAL

A   ATTIC SALT   Not a phrase I had heard of before, although the two definitions combined are fairly easy to solve.  ATTIC (ROOM) +  SALT (SEASON)

B   BOGUS   BOG (standard) + US (American)

C  CINCTURED   CINC  (Commander in chief) + TU (”half! turn) + RED (FOR DANGER)

D  DIPHTHONG   DIP (Pickpocket) +H + THONG  - There’s a diphthong at the start of the answer to E, viz……

E EIDERDOWN  EIDER (DUCK) + DOWN (tOWARDS THE FLOOR)

F FLORA   FL = (a measure of) LIQUID + OR (GOLD) + A =  Part of Alaska.  For me, the FL def for Liquid is a bit loose.

G GIRTH  Almost straight definition clue.

H HALLOWMAS  LOW(base) inside HALMA’S (solitaire type board.games)

H HARVESTER VEST inside HARE + R

I IMPEARLED I’m reminded of a wedding I went to at the weekend, and you’ll have to mail me for details! IMP (Fiend) + EAR + LED

J  JERRY-BUILDING  LYRE, BIRD IN JUG*

K  KEZIA  K + (B)AIZE (R) 

L LARGE  ELGAR*

M MARMALADE  MAR + MALADE (invalid over water!)

N NADIR Hidden answer

O OVERACT  VERA (Girl) inside OCT (Month) HAM = definition

P POPEDOM  MODE POP (R) In this sense POP is used as in VOX POP, ie short for POPULI.

Q QUALIFICATION  Dbl defs

R RAISE Homophone for RAYS

S SCATTERER  T-TERRACES*

T TOWN CLERK  ”CLOWN TURK” according to Spooner with the qualfication “if American”.  Outrageously funny clue!

U UNDYING (L)UNDY (Island) + IN G - G being the IVR for Gabon

V VENUS   (CD)  “Our neighbour” in the solar system

VIALS  VI (Little girl) +  ALS(O)  (As well without  love)

X X MARKS THE SPOT  X MARK (Decimal currency!!)+ ST H (St Hugh’s) + (D)ESPOT (Topped tyrant)

Y YESTERDAY’S MEN  sEATS DRY* inside YEMEN

Z ZINGARO  Hidden answer.

I found it easy to place the four long answers by using the second letters

and fitting the answers in.